Pile fabric knitting machine



March 15, 1932. 0. P. MOORE FILE FABRIC KNITTING MACHIFNE Filed Oct. 11. 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 15, 1932. MOORE 1,849,466

PILE FABRIC KNITTING MACHINE Filed Oct. 11. 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 15,- 1932: D. P. MOORE 1,849,466

FILE FABRIC KNITTING MACHINE Filed Oct. '11. 1929 s Sheets- Sheet 3 Patented Mar. 15, 1932 PATENT; OFFICE DAVID I'ELTON MOORE, OI AVON PARK,

FILE FABRIC KNITTING MACHINE Application filed October 11, 1929. Serial No. teams.

' matically shown an described mechanism of the U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,114,414 to Tauber, but which has embodied therein improvements that bring the Tauber idea into practical and commercial being. In endeavoring to put the Tauber idea into practice, one

skilled in the art was at loss just as to how the two mechanisms could be co-ordinated and therefore considerable testing and designing had to be resorted to. First Tauber did not give any idea as to where the fiber feeding attachment should be set up, how it should be operated and at what speeds the fiber feeding brush would have to be operated with relation to the speed of the needle cylinder. Neither was there any means hinted at for automatically actuatin the stop motion of the knitting machine s ould the yarn become too slack or break and/or the fiber being supplied to the fiber feed give out.

It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide automatic controls of the stop motion actuated due to the slacking or breaking of the yarn and should the fiber in roving or sliver form delivered to the fiber feeding device give out, thus immediately making it possible for a single operator to take care of not less than four of these machines.

With the foregoing and other objects in view and which will appear as the description proceeds, it will be apparent that many changes and arrangements of the parts may be resorted to and still be within the scope of what is claimed.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the upper portion of a circular knitting machine and the fiber'feeding attachment in operative relation.

Figure 2 is a similar view showing in diagram the electrical circuits and mechanism for automatically operating the stop motion, the main drum and fiber feeding members of the attachment being eliminated,

Figure 3 is a detail view of one type of stop motion to which the present automatic controls are attached.

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view of the stop motion latch.

Figure 5 is a detail bottom. plan view of the fiber controlling switch for the fiber feeder.

Figure 6 is a section taken on line 6-6 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a side elevation of one form of latch needle employed with this mechanism.

Figure 8 is a side elevation of the fiber feeder taken from the opposite side to Figure 1.

Figure 9 is a cross section through the fiber feeding brush.

Fi ure 10 is a detail view showing the adjusta le means for mounting the fiber feeder relatively to the knitting machine.

Referring to the drawings, the knitting machine K is of usual latch needle circular type, and carries a circular base plate 11, a needle cylinder support 12 and a needle cylinder 13. A drive shaft 14 is mounted in the usual manner and through a gear 15 and the cylin-. der gear 16 rotates the cylinder 13. Fixed and loose pulleys 17 and 18 having a belt throwing yoke 19 are provided to control the rotation of the shaft 14, said yoke being manually set to place" the belt B upon the fixed pulley 18, through the medium of the rock shaft 20 and its operating handle 21. The lever 23 is connected to the rock shaft, which is journaled in the arm 22, and projects through a slot 24 of the frame where it is opposed by the spring 25 that normally acts to throw the yoke 19 so that the belt is placed on the loose pulley 17. A modified bell-crank lever 26 is pivotally attached at 27 to the frame so that the depending arm 28 thereof will have its free end 29 placed in the path to engage the free end of the lever 23 and thus lock the yoke in power delivering position, the arm 28 acting as a trigger to hold and release the same. To limit the throw of the arm 28, a lug 30 carried by the frame of'the mechanism is provided with an adjusting screw 31, and at one side and opposed thereto is a fixed limiting lug 32. To assist in the manual operation of the bell-crank lever a s rin 34 is provided, while the terminal 33 oFsaig point of the cylinder.

yarn sup ort 42 is carried by the frame and the usua cone supports 43, generally two in number, are provided, and so that the cone 44 may be supported to deliver the basic yarn through the guide 45 and as illustrated at 46, Fig. 2, to t e needles of the knittlng machine. Carried by the support 42 is an arm 47, to which is pivoted, one to each cone support 44, a biased lever 49, provided in its lower free end with a thread uide 50,- which when guiding the yarn is acte upon thereby to hol the longer end with the switch member 51 as shown in Fig. 2, and therefore out of contact with the cooperating contact 48 of the switch. Thus so long as the yarn is at the proper tension or unbroken, this switch is held open, the slackening or breaking of the yarn permitting the lever to be free to its bias and permitting the switch to close and cause the energization of the stop motion actuating electro-magnet 51. A circuit that is thus closed consists of a source 52 of energy, here shown as a battery, a switch controlled conductor 53, the electromagnet 51, the conductors 53 and 53' the switch 48 and 51', and

a conductor 54. The energization of the electroma-gnet 51 causes the core 0 thereof to be moved to the left as viewed in Fig. 2, and as the core is attached to the terminal 28 of the bell crank lever, the same is moved therewith to free the lever 23 to its spring 25 to operate the stop motion.

The miniature carding machine or fiber feeding attachment C, is com osed of two side frames 55, several tie ro s 56 holding them together and thus providing a framework for supporting the carding elements. In order that this attachment may be adjustabl attached to the knitting machine, the en s 57 are slotted and receive the bolts 58 with nuts 59 that secure the attachment to the base plate 11, the purpose of which will presently appear.

In order to drive the fiber feeding attachment in synchronism with the knitting machine, a large sprocket 60 is attached to the drive shaft 14, so that a chain 61 may be trained thereover and also over the smaller sprocket 62 attached to one of the shafts 63 of the attachment. A second sprocket 64 is attached to the shaft 63 and over this is trained a second chain 65, engaging a sprocket 66, of one of the drums 66, and a sprocket 67 of a fiber feeding brush 68, arrows indicating in Fig. 1, the directions of movements of the various chains. This chain 65, is also trained over a large sprocket 69 attached to the main drum 71, whose shaft 70 carries ufion the 0K- posite side to the sprocket 69,asma er sproc et 72, which controls a chain 73, and through two sprockets 74 and 76, two auxiliary carding drums 77 and 78 respectively. A small gear 79 is also carried by the shaft'70 and operates a train of gears 80, 81 and 82, so that the gear 83 for operatin the auxiliary carding drum 84 is controlle in proper timed relation. The gear 82 o erates through the gears 83, 83, 86 and 8 a small auxiliary carding drum 86, and two sliver or fiber feeding or delivering rollers 90 and 91, so that the sliver or roving S is delivered from the can 102 to the fiber feeding attachment.

It has been found desirable to halt the machine before the roving gives out or before its end reaches the rollers 90 and 91, and in order to do this, hangers 98 are supported from the frame 55, and carry strips 99 of insulation, and which in turn support two resilient conductor plates 100 and 100'. When the sliver is placed between the plates 100 and 100, they are held out of contact, and therefore the circuit to the electromagnet 51 is open, but as soon as the roving fails, or becomes too thin, these plates will contact and automatically come to a halt. This circuit is as follows, battery 52, switch 53, electroclose the circuit, and thus the machine will magnet 51, conductors 53 and 103, contact plates and 100', and conductors 101 and 54. Thus by this means should the sliver S give out, or become too thin, the machine will be brought to a halt so that this may be corrected by feeding additional material to the machine. This is very important, due to the fact that if the machine is not halted with some fiber between the rollers 90-91, there will appear in the fabric a thin ot where the break in the slubber beyond t e rollers occurred.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the drawings, it is evident that with the present mechanism a more practical and commercial machine is provided and that with the basic princi les as set forth in the Tauber patent emb ied in a practical arrangement as herein set forth, a fabric can now be made that is commercially satisfactory.

I claim 1. A pile fabric knitting machine, including in combination a knitting machine having a drive shaft, a rotary needle cylinder operated thereby, a stop motion device for rendering the drive shaft inoperative, a fiber feeding device operably connected to the drive shaft, and means controlled by fiber being fed to the fiber feeding device for actuating the stop motion device when the fiberering rollers and in which the fiber controlled means precedes the rollers, so that the machine is stopped before the end of the fiber or the thin part passes between the rollers.

3. A pile fabric knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stop motion device is provided with an electrical device for operating the same, and in which said electrical device is controlled by a circuit ineluding a switch normally held open by the fiber controlled means, but which is closed when the fiber gives out or is too thin and causes the energization of the electrical device and the operation of the stop motion device.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

DAVID PELTON MOORE. 

